If you are pounding the tar out of a test VM in VMware Workstation, it probably makes sense to have “AutoProtect” enabled. Under vSphere, however, AutoProtect is probably a (very) bad idea; best practice generally states that snapshots should be maintained for no longer than 72 hours. VMware is so anti-AutoProtect that they don’t even provide controls for it in the vSphere web management GUI.

And here’s the kicker: If you use vCenter Converter (standalone) to migrate a VM from Workstation to vSphere, any preconfigured AutoProtect schedules will come over with it.

So, uh, if the management interface doesn’t provide controls, how do you disable AutoProtect under vSphere? I’m glad you asked!

1) Log into the web management GUI with admin privileges and then navigate to the VM for which you wish to disable AutoProtect.
2) Power off the VM (yes, you must do this).
3) Edit the VM's settings.
4) Click VM Options, expand Advanced, and then click Edit Configuration...
5) Find every occurrence of rollingTier#.live (where # will be a 0, 1, 2, and so forth - e.g., rollingTier0.live) and set it to false.
6) Save your changes and exit all dialogues.
7) Restart your VM.